Stock Futures Sink on Fears of Messy Debt Ceiling Debates

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Stock futures were sinking as the U.S. government shutdown entered its second week.

More than 800,000 federal workers are on unpaid leave as lawmakers wrangled over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, fueling increasing concern that the debate over the health care law will be inextricably tied to discussions about the U.S. debt ceiling, putting the country at risk of defaulting on its bills.

House Speaker John Boehner warned Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program that a budget deal won't be passed in the House without concessions to the health care law, enacted by Congress in 2010.

Futures for the S&P 500 were declining by 13.75 points, or 12.7 points below fair value, to 1,671. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were dropping 119 points, or 114.58 points below fair value, to 14,879. Futures for the Nasdaq were giving up 27.75 points, or 27.62 points below fair value, to 3,211.75.

Cooper Tire & Rubber ( CTB) was plunging more than 12% to $25.88 after the company's $2.5 billion deal to be acquired by India's Apollo Tyres hit a major roadblock whereby Apollo said resolving labor issues at Cooper's U.S. and China plants would be extremely costly. Apollo appears to be pushing for a renegotiation of the deal sparking that plans to create the world's seventh-largest tire maker could fall through.

Boeing ( BA) shares were losing 1.37% to $115.60 after Japan Airlines revealed it will buy jets from Boeing's European rival Airbus, from the first time in its history, a big blow to Boeing. The company said its decision to endorse a 950 billion yen ($9.5 billion) deal to buy 31 A350 planes had nothing to do with the long-list of technical incidences suffered by the 787 Dreamliner planes but that the move was based on the "best match" for its current needs.

BlackBerry ( BBRY) is in talks with Cisco ( CSCO), Google ( GOOG) and SAP ( SAP) about selling them all or parts of itself, several sources close to the matter told Reuters. Such a deal would be an alternative to the preliminary agreement reached weeks ago with a group led by Fairfax Financial Holdings, BlackBerry's biggest shareholder, to take the company private for about $4.7 billion, Reuters noted. That bid has faced some skepticism because of financing questions. BlackBerry shares were popping 3.77% to $7.98.

The FTSE 100 in London was off by 0.6% and the DAX in Germany was dipping by 0.94%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng settled behind by 0.71% while the Nikkei 225 in Japan finished off by 1.22%.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury was rising 7/32, diluting the yield to 2.624%. The dollar was falling 0.16% to $79.99 according to the U.S. dollar index.

November crude oil futures were down by $1.19 to $102.65 a barrel. December gold futures on the other hand were rising $3.10 to $1,313 an ounce as the metal's safe haven appeal increased amid the distress caused by the government shutdown and debt ceiling deadline.